Pillow Making

A few weeks ago I was looking through the Oriental Trade catalog, and I found fleece pillow making kits.  I thought that would be a great idea for Kaitlyn's sleepover party. The kits made 6 pillows and they had a few designs to choose from.  But the pillows were small and the kits were around $20 and there would have been about $7 added for shipping.  I figured it would be cheaper to go to the fabric store to buy the fleece and poly-fill.  Also, Kaitlyn could choose the fabric she wanted herself.  It took a little help from the lady at the fabric counter, but we figured out that a yard each for front and back would make a decent size pillow for 6 girls.  Kaitlyn picked a pretty paisley print for the front and a matching hot pink for the back.  I bought a yard and a half of each, just to be on the safe side in case I screwed up measuring and cutting, but I would have been fine with a yard.  I bought 2 of the 20 oz bags of Poly-fill-we used 1 1/2.  We bought nice no-pill fleece that was on sale, and with that and the Poly, I spent about $32.  So it wasn't cheaper then ordering from the catalog, but the girls got bigger pillows in a nicer fleece....had I only bought a yard, it would have cost less.

I got 3 20 inch pieces out of the width of the fleece so that there was no waste and cut the pieces through both layers of fabric to make 6- 20 by 15in rectangles.

I marked 3 inches in, all the way around with chalk to mark how deep to cut the fringe.  This is easier to see on a solid color so I made all of my markings on the pink side.

3 inches was plenty easy enough for the girls to tie.  I sort-of just pressed down with the edge of my ruler to make a line all the way across before I started cutting.  You need to make sure your 2 layers of fabric stay lined up, then start cutting your fringe  I cut fringe all the way around about 3/4 inch wide.  I just eye-balled it.  That part doesn't need to be perfect. This is the part that is time consuming.
I decided it would be a good idea to put a line of fabric glue around the edge of the fringe to make a seam and keep the pillows together and the fringe lined up while the girls tied.

That worked out great!  Just be sure to leave about 4 inches unglued so that they have an opening to stuff it.
I didn't take pictures of each step along the way, but you get the jidst.  It is easy, just time consuming, depending on how many you need to make. 
Follow these steps for each pillow, and you have got your make and take party favor!

The girls really enjoyed this, and I thought it was a very appropriate activity for a sleepover party!